A boost for ‘amazing imaginations’

MT. PLEASANT - The Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance unveiled a new computer numerical control machine at the Mt. Pleasant High School on Thursday afternoon.

After receiving a Future Ready Iowa Employer Innovation Fund, a matching grant program from the state, the Chamber dedicated the money to help purchase the machine for the Career and Technical Education Department at the school.

In addition to the machine, the nonprofit presented the program a $2,000 donation 'to further career exploration in trade industries” at the school, according to a statement from the Chamber.

CTE programs offered at the school include culinary arts, photography and graphic design, business and finance, information technology, manufacturing, construction, building trades and automotive.

'Entering a trade offers personal fulfillment, high salary potential, and job stability” Kristi Ray, executive vice president of the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance, said.

'We need students to study those trades now more than ever before,” she added.

The purchase of the machine was a collaborative effort between the Chamber, the Mt. Pleasant Community School District and local businesses. With $10,000 from state funds, the district matched with $5,000 with an additional $5,000 provided through donations from Cornerstone Building Products, Hearth & Home Technologies, Jabil, Lomont Molding and Steffensmeier Welding.

Colby Newman, building and trades teacher at the high school, whose students will primarily work with the machine, said the new equipment will allow students to learn design skills that will be transferable to many jobs in manufacturing. Newman explained the machine gives students an opportunity to learn how to use programming and design software and input designs into a machine to build things digitally.

'Ultimately, if they can manipulate the software and draw them, it transfers to so many different places,” he said.

Newman added he hopes the new resources will draw different groups of students to the CTE program.

'I can draw some students down here to the wood shop that love the design part of it and get them down here building things and interested and bridge the gap and get some of my guys who love the hands-on stuff doing some of the design software,” he said.

Although the coronavirus pandemic prevented Newman from having the machine ready to go at the beginning of the school year, recent updates have the teacher hopeful that students will have the design software available on their school provided computers within the next several weeks.

'Students have amazing imaginations and that's pretty much the limit when it comes to this machine,” he said.